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Tomorrow fight fans at the Korakuen Hall will see OPBF Heavyweight championKyotaro Fujimoto (16-1, 8) [藤本 京太郎] defending his title against the powerfully builtHerman Ene Purcell (12-5, 6), in a bout which will also see the winner claim the WBO Asia Pacific title.

Today, ahead of their bout, the two men took part in their weigh in.

On the scales Fujimoto, the taller man by abouyt 4", was the lighter man coming in at around 228.4lbs. The weight is around his typical weigh in weight, which ranges from 223lbs to 233lbs and he looked in decent shape, even if he wasn't ripped to the gills. He made it clear that he's seeing this bout as his chance to move towards a WBO world title fight against Joseph Parker.

As for Purcell's weight, that was about 257.5lbs, significantly heavier than the Japanese fighter. He was quiet at the weigh in but seemed confident in his power. Amazingly his arms were so thick that the sphygmomanometer, the machine used to measure blood pressure, struggled to fit around his arm properly.​Related-​Kyotaro looks for first defense of Oriental crown!

We've known for a while that OPBF Heavyweight championKyotaro Fujimoto (16-1, 8) [藤本 京太郎] would be defending his title against #1 contenderHerman Ene Purcell (12-5, 6) on May 8th at the Korakuen Hall, with the bout serving as Kyotaro's first defense.

In the early morning news in Japan on Wednesday it was revealed that that not only would the OPBF title be on the line bu so to would be the WBO Asia Pacific Heavyweight, making the bout more historic and more significant than had it just been for the OPBF title.

A win for Purcell would make him a double champion, and help open up all sorts of notable fights as well as move him into the world rankings, taking the rankings that Kyotaro has. That however won't be the plan of Kadoebi, who certainly see the addittion of the WBO regional title as more of a bonus for their man, who they have huge belief in.

If Kyotaro wins it further defines his place in history, and makes him a triple crown winner as he would add the WBO Asia Pacific title to the OPBF and Japanese titles that he currently holds. It would see him becoming the first Japanese fighter to claim the WBO Asia Pacific Heavyweight title, the first at any weight to unify the three crowns and potentilly helps push him towards a WBO world title fight, against Joseph Parker.

The bout is certainly one that had interesting in it anyway, but the addittion of the extra belt certainly addsa little bit extra, especially due to the boost it will give the winner with the WBO, and the potential world title fight down the line.

Back in January we saw Kyotaro Fujimoto (16-1, 8) [藤本 京太郎] create a little slice of history as he became the first Japanese born fighter to become the OPBF Heavyweight champion. In May he will attempt to solidify his position as he returns to the ring in an attempt to make his first defense of the title.

The Kadoebi Houseki fighter will be looking to defend his title on May 8th, at the Korakuen Hall, against Australian based Samoan born challenger Herman Ene Purcell (12-5, 6), who will be making his first OPBF title challenge.

The talented Fujimoto claimed the title on January 14th when he out boxed the big punching Willie Nasio for the belt, dropping Nasio on route to the win. Against Purcell we're expecting to see a difference tactic being required from Fujimoto, with Purcell being less cumbersome, and less heavy handed, than Nasio.

Although the bout is the main event there will be a number of notable fighters on the under-card, including Akinori Watanabe (33-6, 28) [渡部あきのり] and Shoma Fukumoto (10-1, 8) [福本 祥馬], both of whom fought on the under-card of Fujimoto's title win.

Earlier this week the WBO announced their latest world rankings. One of the more notable inclusions in the thei top 15 was Japanese Heavyweight Kyotaro Fujimoto (16-1, 8) [藤本 京太郎], who won the OPBF Heavyweight title earlier this month. Kyotaro has recieved the #15 ranking from the WBO and could, potentially, find himself in the running for a WBO world title fight later in the year.

Interestingly if the Kadoebi man does get a shot at the title he would be the first Japanese born fighter to fight for a world Heavyweight title, building on his historic status as the second Japanese national Heavyweight champion and the first Japanese OPBF champion at Heavyweight.

Notably if Kyotaro was to fight current WBO world champion Joseph Parker it would see the two men go full circle after the bout seemed to be signed back in 2014, before Kyotaro broke away from negotiations to concentrate on other things.

Kyotaro was one of a number of Japanese fighters to be included in the rankings for this month, though was the most notable given how few Japanese fighters make any mark on the world rankings in the higher weights. The other notable Japanese fighter to change their WBO status wasKosei Tanaka (8-0, 5) [田中恒成], who claimed the WBO Light Flyweight title at the very end of 2016.

Although action in Japan kicked off last weekend the fans in the country got their first televised action of the year earlier today, and we got the first OPBF title fight of 2017 as the headline bout of that card. That title bout saw Japanese Heavyweight champion Kyotaro Fujimoto (16-1, 8) [藤本 京太郎] take on Australian champion Willie Nasio (10-2, 9) on a show televised by G+. For Kyotaro it was a second shot at an Oriental title, following a loss several years ago to Solomon Haumono for the very same title. For Nasio the bout was his first outside of Australia and his first beyond Australian domestic level.

Going in to the bout the general view was that it would be Nasio's power against Kyotaro's speed. That generally proved to be right, though it's fair to saw that Nasio was slower than anyone had expected and due to how slow he was he actually couldn't make the most of his power.

The first round was a close one, with both men trying to get a read on the other. It was the type of round that could have gone to either man, but didn't really tell us much about the fight. In round 2 however the pace of the bout changed as Nasio went after Fujimoto and tagged the Japanese fighter clean several times, before being tagged himself by a perfect right hand counter. That right hand dropped Nasio, and seemed to leave him wary through out the rest of the right.

With Nasio being wary of Fujimoto's under-rated power he seemed happy to just follow the Japanese fighter around the ring, and not give the Japanese fighter too many openings for counters. That instead left Kyotaro to pick and poke with jabs which were his key weapon through much of the bout. Nasio had his moments, and when he landed he did seem to scare Kyotaro, but lacked consistency and the energy to follow up after landing.

After 4 rounds the open scoring favoured Kyotaro, with the judges having the bout 39-36 and 38-37, twice. There was little to argue with those cards given how close the first round was, the 10-8 in round 2 to Kyotaro and the fact the local seemed to win round 3 whilst the visitor took round 4.

One of the best rounds was round 5, a competitive round that saw Nasio show some fire and put Kyotaro under some pressure. It was a round that the visitor seemed to win, but he was forced to take some nasty shots, and his effort certainly cost him in the following round. In fact round 6 was one of the most one sided rounds of the fight with Kyotaro frequently landing power shots to the head of Nasio, who ate a series of big right hands early in the round, and was rocked again later in the round as Kyotaro took a dominant round. The success of the local fighter continued in rounds 7 and 8, with Nasio being doubled over from a body shot in round 8 before gritting his teeth and putting Kyotaro on to the back foot last in round 8.

After 8 rounds the open scoring was again announced and had Kyotaro in a comfortable lead with cards of 77-74 and 78-73. Although comfortable the bout wasn't a foregone conclusion, especially given Nasio's power, and Kyotaro knew he couldn't let Aussie take the final 4 rounds.

Kyotaro continued to use his speed in round 9 and again seemed to always be a step ahead of the visitor for the round, despite being forced to take a big body shot. The jab of Kyotaro again proved to be a key weapon in keeping Nasio at bay. The Aussie picked up the pace in round 10, one his best rounds, and it seemed like it was time to go for it, but despite some really good moments, he couldn't ever follow up an attack before Kyotaro had gotten away. Nasio's hopes took another battering in round 11, with the Australia landing next to nothing of note whilst Kyotaro landed jabs, straights and hooks during a dominant round that essentially secured him the win as long as he stayed up right.

Nasio finally tried to turn things around in the final round, one of his best rounds, but he again always seemed to be too slow and too cumbersome to ever catch up with the more nimble Japanese fighter who got to the final bell.

Having heard the final bell there was no doubting the winner with Kyotaro getting the win with scores of 118-109, 116-112 and 116-111. He had out boxed the slower, clumsier man but we couldn't help thinking that had Nasio come in in shape he could well have beaten Fujimoto with relative ease. The Aussie looked like he had 20lbs to lose, had was incredibly slow, lacked any energy in his work and showed no real urgency. He only has himself to blame.

For Kyotaro the bout should put him back in the world rankings, though he is nowhere near ready for a world title fight. In saying that he did secure a place in history as the first Japanese national to win the OPBF Heavyweight title, and he should be proud of that.